Indonesia: travelling on faith and little white pills

by Joanne Gundry

What can I say about my trip in Indonesia? Well, it was
certainly hot, dusty, dirty, and very challenging, but refreshing and immensely
enlightening. Some would call me very brave or extremely insane for undertaking
this trip. Looking back, I am glad I didn’t look too far ahead or I wouldn’t
have gone. Being only a second year student at the Bay of Plenty College of
Homeopathy in New Zealand, I
went armed with only a few homeopathic remedies, my Kent repertory, and 2 therapeutic
books. All I can say is: please be careful what you pray for, it does get
answered in some form or other!

I jumped on board a
mission trip to Indonesia,
consisting of mainly allopathic doctors, with me as the only homeopathic nurse.
We headed over to the Mentawai Islands, a small group of islands along the coast of Sumatra that is not even on most maps; an area that was
hard hit by the 2005 tsunami.

On entering Medan, it was very
obvious we weren’t in a western country anymore. Our bags were searched and
torn apart; all the allopathic drugs were seized and confiscated, to later be
broken down and sold on the black market. Our bandages and dressings were left
alone but everything else was taken. When my turn came to have my bags
checked and my pilules scrutinized, I pictured myself locked in
some tiny filthy Indonesian cell for months on end. Miraculously, the guard
handed them back, saying in broken English “No good, no good”. Someone explained later that the ‘little white
pills’ were ‘no good’ as they couldn’t be broken down and sold. I couldn’t believe
it, I was free to go.

So, off we went
and then reality hit hard: there was no hospital, no ambulance, no power, no
running water, there was no food in some cases, no help for miles, and people
really died on the streets; my ‘little pills’ and my faith in God were all I
had.

Sadly, most of the
doctors decided that without their medicine they couldn’t cope and they headed
back home, so I was left with another nurse and some backpackers. I spent
almost 4 weeks traveling around, seeing almost 400 patients in that short time.
There were extreme cases ranging from gangrene (complete with maggots) to
dengue fever, malaria, TB, and leprosy. I worked in a leprosy colony for 10 days
before moving to set up various clinics along the coast. People traveled for
hours to consult us and often waited all day in the 30 degree heat for a 15
minute appointment. Please excuse my lack of photos, my batteries went flat,
and it was a 3 day trip to the nearest supermarket for some more.

Arriving on the island
the first night, absolutely exhausted from the 3 days travel, I was called to
see a patient at 2am. It was an elderly woman of about 73, who had fallen 3
months ago and the family had no money for the doctor. The one and only
missionary doctor on the island refused to help her: “She is going to die
anyway and I have limited supplies and nothing to help her.” So, she was ignored
and left to die in pain. She had broken her hip and her leg had started to rot. The
family unwrapped it for me and I was greeted by a cascade of flies coming from
between her toes. The wound smelled like rotten meat, so bad that it made me
want to gag, and the woman was beside herself with pain. She was rolling from side
to side and crying out for it to stop; blood poisoning had obviously set in.
The skin was so broken down that it was slimy and sloughing off her foot; I did
not dare to touch it, in case it came off in my hands. What to do?

Rotten meat: Pyrogenium;
blood poisoning: Arnica; pain: Hypericum, all 3 at once. Some might say: “No, you can’t give three
remedies at once” but this woman was in severe pain and she needed to be
treated quickly and effectively. I gave the remedies in 1M potencies, every 30
seconds, for about 5 minutes, until I could see the pain starting to subside. I went to check on her
around 6am. For the last four hours, she had been sleeping like a baby, the
smell had gone, and the flies had set up residence elsewhere. Another dose of
Pyrogen, Arnica and Hypericum 1M was all that was needed.

The lady died the next
day but she slipped away painlessly, which meant more to her family than
words could express. The body was laid out for people to pay their last
respects; her face looked so peaceful and at rest, with none of the grimaces of
pain. Attending her funeral was one of the most humbling experiences I have
ever had.

The other case was a very quiet
pedicab driver with a sore on his inner ankle, which would get scraped every time
he peddaled his pedicab; he needed to work, but it was getting worse every time
he went to work, and so the cycle kept on going on and on.

He hobbled into the
clinic with an oozing sore. Since he didn't speak, I had nothing to go on apart from ‘honey-like fluid’, so I prescribed Graphites according to Nash: “eruptions
oozing out a thick honey-like fluid.” He took Graphites 200C, 5 doses, once per
minute, and went away. He came back three days later, the discharge was gone and the wound had started
to heal nicely. Another three days later, the wound had improved even more and
the last time I saw him, it was healed completely.

One last case of a
mother who rushed into the clinic in great distress with her child in her arms. His
temperature was 42 degrees; I had never seen such a high fever before. The child was lying in his mother’s
arms, drinking copious amounts from his bottle; he was peeing it out as fast as
he could drink it. On trying to pick the child up, he began to scream, on laying
him back down in his mother’s arms, he was quiet. "Grumpy old bear, with a great
thirst", Bryonia 1M once every 10 seconds. His temperature dropped to 40oC
within one minute, then to 38oC, then to 37,5oC, just minutes later. The
temperature was now down but his skin was extremely hot and dry, so the next
remedy was Sulphur
1M, 3 doses, which brought the hot skin back to a normal state. The child got up 10 minutes later, toddled around
the clinic, took a look at his stressed mother and a stressed homeopath as if
to say: "I don’t know what all the fuss was about!” He then wandered off outside to
play.

It has all been a
great leap of faith for me, including all the illnesses I could have caught. It
of course crossed my mind to have vaccinations but it felt hypocritical to
trust homeopathy for others yet not trust it for myself. I took homeopathic
prophylaxis: dengue fever nosode, Polio, TB, Malaria, Diphtheria, Meningitis,
Cholera, Typhoid, Tetanus, Hep A&B combination. I never once got sick, yet strangely
enough most members of the group who been vaccinated did become sick, and they
eventually ended up asking for help from the “little white pills”, which survived
numerous x-ray machines, the most unsanitary conditions I have ever seen, being
dropped on the floor, rolled around in grubby hands, and taken with other
remedies, and still... they worked!

I have very fond
memories that will last a lifetime. I walked everywhere I went, I slept on
dusty floors, bucketed water out of a 15 foot drop well, had to collect wood
and build fires before I could boil the water. I was taught how to catch fish
with the simplest of fishing line and I traded a consultation for help in
gutting the fish. (I’ll never forget Aloe for hemorrhoids like grapes, nor will
that contented patient.) I could handle gangrene and maggots, but a dead fish
staring at me was too much! Life is funny.

The people were
amazing and they knew the meaning of life. They survived on next to nothing and
often had only the clothes on their backs, yet I never went without a place to
stay nor food to eat. I was always offered a cup of sweet tea to drink,
something which I later learned was like gold, only reserved for special
guests. I learned that
building wealth does not always make you happy; it is the people you have in
your life that enrich it.

I learned that it
is not happiness that makes you grateful, but gratefulness that makes you
happy.

where do you get the nosode remedyReply #8 on : Fri January 20, 2012, 05:04:24

hi, Joanne , I must say you are really very brave to go to such country, do you think you can share where can you get the nosode of the dengi fever? because I may want to go to Indonesia, so I can get all those nosode for prevention.
thank you.
clara

Posts: 8

Thank youReply #7 on : Tue July 19, 2011, 18:19:32

Joanne Gundry, Gina Tyler-Sumatera is my favorite place too. I have friend there(Palembang).I have plane to learn Indonesian language and I really very interested just i have completed graduation on homeopathy and now doing internship at college hospital. Thank you so much for making a nice trip in this island.Good luck from Bangladesh!

Posts: 8

Homeopathy in IndonesiaReply #6 on : Tue May 31, 2011, 16:12:13

Thanks for sharing your journey Joanne. A brave soul you are. Too bad not more volunteers willing to do this. I speak from firsthand experience, doing also homeopathic volunteer work in Indonesia; been doing it every two years since the tsunami of 2004 till now. www.ginatyler.com
sharing with you-an interview about this volunteerwork listed under articles.
http://www.homeopathyworldcommunity.com/forum/topics/a-look-into-homeopathic

Last Edit: May 31, 2011, 16:41:44 by mache

Posts: 8

Re:Reply #5 on : Tue May 31, 2011, 10:47:50

Thanks for all the wonderful comments.
It was not me who did amazing work it was God. I could not have gone over there if it were not for Him carrying me. The journey for me was one of faith, I needed to know that this journey He has me on was real. As for me being a 2nd year student, I learnt not to be scared of who you are. All that you need to know is inside of you, God will never give you any more than you can handle. The will of God will never take you where the grace of God will not protect you. I got far more out of the experience than I put in. I learnt to just keep it simple, we all to often loose the simplicity of it all with our over complicated lives and I often wonder what Samual Hahnemann would think if he came back today. Treat what you see and not what you don't, it really is that simple. Where this journey will lead now I do not know, but I do know that God will be with me every step of the way.
Jo

Posts: 8

homeopathy in MedanReply #4 on : Tue May 31, 2011, 03:19:45

WOW. Incredibly inspirational - and only a second year student!!!!! Very very impressed by the writer's ability to keep it simple, like the old masters, and it goes without saying, by her courage, fortitude, faith and compassion.

Hi Joanne,
thank you for sharing some of your experiences and inspiring me! I spent 2 weeks in rural Africa using homeopathy to treat all sorts of things - like you, things I never expected to see, let alone treat - and it has had a profound effect on me both personally and homeopathically. Your story reminds me of what a gift this walk of life and profession is! a gift to those of us who practice it, and a gift to those who experience it's promise.

Posts: 8

Thank you for sharing!Reply #2 on : Mon May 30, 2011, 21:17:09

Hi Jo, thank you for sharing your account of your experiences in Indonesia. It's beautiful and inspiring. I am a yr 3 student at the college in Tauranga, you may remember me. It is very encouraging to read an account of a beginning homeopath like myself and to understand that no matter where on the journey to wisdom we are, we can mean something to someone and aid healing and quality of life. Sometimes I think "Will I ever get there?" and hold of action in stead of acting upon what I know now. Your account shows that if you act with what you understand and know now, your journey will teach you which steps to take next. All the best on your path!Kind Regards Esther

Posts: 8

Joanne Gundry in IndonesiaReply #1 on : Mon May 30, 2011, 17:03:06

What can I say Joanne ? I'm overwhelmed by your account of your experiences in Indonesia, but particularly your courage to get those 1M's going in every few seconds. Speaking as a 30c 'girl'it was inspiring. You did amazing work and relieved a lot of suffering. When homeopathy in the UK is under such attack it does me good to be reminded of the healing power of the 'little white pills 'Thankyou